Voice of the People - April 13, 2008

Animal lovers, we have a dire emergency facing the York County Humane Society in Fort Mill.

They are in financial straits, and it is my understanding they will have to close their doors within a few months for lack of money. They are the only "no kill" facility in York County and rely solely on donations from caring people.

I visited the shelter, which is run by volunteers, and found animals in cages with no runs to even stretch their legs. They get out only if a volunteer walks them. They need a larger facility.

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They will have a yard sale on April 19. Please don't say "isn't that too bad, isn't it a shame" and put it out of your mind. Do something, give something, start something. Tell others something must be done to improve things!

Mrs. Lawrence Magnuson

Fort Mill

Can nation afford to sustain the war?

Now that the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq has come and gone, it seems appropriate to reflect on our invasion of that country in 2003. The initial "shock and awe" bombardment of Baghdad resulted in the deaths of more than 2,000 innocent women and children. The infrastructure of power grids and water treatment plants were reduced to rubble. Homes, shops and buildings, too. With the destruction of the social order, the ancient sectarian blood feuds of Sunni and Shia were unrestrained.

In an effort to restore order, our military personnel face the horror of being in the middle of a civil war with "insurgent" forces from outside Iraq coming to fight our troops. Now the surge of U.S. forces has, thankfully, reduced the violence, for the time being.

However, the questions remain: Do we have the right to pre-emptively and unilaterally invade another country to change its government? Can we assume that countries with cultures and customs very different from our own will behave in the same way as we would behave? Can raining death and destruction on a country that did not attack us result in securing us from acts of terrorism directed at our homeland?

Finally, will the spending of trillions of dollars, the maiming of thousands of American military men and women, and the psychological damage done to so many people who have been in the middle of a man-made hell, result in a better world for all?